Itinerant Air-Cooled

Sorry I haven't been around much but for some sporatic posts. That was three calls in three days down there in Long Beach, San Marcos, and San Diego. Oh yes, I do love the Southern California experience, but I do remember after a while that I lived in it for twelve years, and when you cannot escape, it is a mind-rattling test of endurance for a fifty seven year-old feral itinerant.

Visited satchmo up in the hills on the eastern side of the metro LA sprawl:




Satchmo and Mary



Off into the Southern California sunset:







See, Southern Californians drive to their sunsets:




I will need updates from my Southern Californians. We have josebrewin who brews some pretty damn good beer between bouts of trying to pass smog with his 1976 Westy. After a valve adjustment/timing adjustment, and quite a bit of futzing with the AFM later, we seemed to have an engine that will run clean enough to survive the 15 mph/25 mph dynamic test. My question for josebrewin is, which one did he readjust after my visit? The "mule" or the "virgin"?

JBoyn_74Westy filled in for my appointment with asiab3 and managed to drag us all into a confetti of greasy paper towels, man, we did those CVs up proud. Tried to wash myself off with the old Tide/Chlorox bucket bath later that night, but I was too tired and gave up. Camped at the military base off CA 163 outside of San Diego. Woke up and got back to my bath on a dead-end two lane (with yellow stripes) road just banked enough to let me wash off without thousands of commuters being distracted. Alas, Mr. Highway Patrolman was.
"What . . . are you doing out here?"
"Washing . . . off yesterday's CV repack."
"Where are you from?"
"New York."
"All the way out here?"
"Yes, and I have a San Diego appointment in an hour."
"I see, well, we are doing truck inspections here in about ten minutes. You will want to move before then, have a nice day."

So, I drove to the southwest corner of the continent and laid eyes on the beautiful Pacific Ocean . . . :




. . . and vwdreamBayb:




We go back all the way to 2008 or something. Her bus, Hans, is a troubled child with a good heart. I convinced her to retrofit the factory dual carbs, and they have done a good job of confounding me with all number of odd maladies. This year was no different. Ran great at idle, then it would lose the two right cylinders if I revved it. Ended up disassembling the right carb, cleaning it, re-installing it, no change in symptoms. On our test drive, I thought to put Hans on an incline to see if this was a fuel related drop out (uphill test > if engine did not drop out, then carb was dropping out due to lean, if engine dropped out worse, it was a flooding situation). That is when Hans lost his brakes in a flood of brake fluid all over the front right tire and wheel. All in all, we decided that Hans picked a perfect time to let us know that his brake lines were rusted through. Gingerly, and with an eye for escape exigencies, we drove through afternoon San Diego street traffic back to the house.
"Should I hit the kid or the grown-up here?"
"The kid."
"OK."
Poor Hans is losing the battle against rust here near the ocean. VWdreamBayb? We need to step up and do an intervention:

Will fill this post in later . . . must get to Las Vegas!
Colin

i must admit, i am like a kid on x-mas eve. See you in the morning.

Amskeptic, sorry to hear about you getting hassled by The Man when just trying to wash off the Durablend grease! I should have offered you my shower in hindsight - after you left I took about an hour long shower and STILL had grease all over the next day. Thanks for the baptism by fire and I hope to not have to repack or replace CVs again for quite some time. You didn't mention that we got to try out some carpentry skills as well to retrofit the battery tray with some laminate flooring supports - you never know what spare garage items will come in handy on an IAC visit.

You left VWdreamBayb like that ! in a pile of whatnot!

Colin,

Didn't Satchmo ditch his TS2 and go to a potentiometer mounted on his dash? How's that working out?

Mike

kids these days?!!? what's next? dash mounted WOT switch!!!??

Happyfolk wrote:Colin,

Didn't Satchmo ditch his TS2 and go to a potentiometer mounted on his dash? How's that working out?

Mike

Hi!

No! Hippiewannabe did the potentiometer knob!

ColinInNewMexico

Bleyseng wrote:You left VWdreamBayb like that ! in a pile of whatnot!

Yeah. . . I did . . . Brakeless.
Colin

I hope you enjoyed the Pacific Ocean! I'm over here on the east coast, you know, where all the heat and sunshine went when Earth discovered you weren't anywhere near…

Washington DC drivers remind me most of Los Angeles drivers so far. A bit homesick, yes, but mostly from that picture of the 210 West at Sunset. Every Sunday for four years, that was my view………

Robbie

asiab3 wrote:I hope you enjoyed the Pacific Ocean! I'm over here on the east coast, you know, where all the heat and sunshine went when Earth discovered you weren't anywhere near…

Washington DC drivers remind me most of Los Angeles drivers so far. A bit homesick, yes, but mostly from that picture of the 210 West at Sunset. Every Sunday for four years, that was my view………

Robbie

you'll just have to get up early every day to watch the amazing Eastern sunrise. I think you will miss the pelicans swooping over the waves headed home at sunset mostly.

asiab3 wrote:I hope you enjoyed the Pacific Ocean! I'm over here on the east coast, you know, where all the heat and sunshine went when Earth discovered you weren't anywhere near…

Washington DC drivers remind me most of Los Angeles drivers so far. A bit homesick, yes, but mostly from that picture of the 210 West at Sunset. Every Sunday for four years, that was my view………

Robbie

I brought the damp and rain (53* and rainy?) to Los Alamos NM after chilling Bakersfield down to 106*.
This is an abomination up with which I shall not put.

I love Los Angeles in short sharp doses. It was a pleasure, after I fecklessly left poor vwdreamBayb brakeless, to escape San Diego and drive directly to Barstow . . . to sleep in almost silence, save for the faraway howl of truck tires off Interstate 15, under an amazing riot of stars in the Milky Way.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote: . . . Barstow . . . to sleep in almost silence, save for the faraway howl of truck tires off Interstate 15, under an amazing riot of stars in the Milky Way.

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!

Currently camped on a rooftop in Manhattan. Drove the Brooklyn Bridge three times, and tried to get a photo but couldn't. Had a "meh" bagel, followed by a Police Party at One World Trade Center. I guess I missed a stop sign, but FIVE of the SIX officers seemed to like my bus' living setup.

Highlights included:
"Is that a bed?" (Yes sir.)
"So you sleep in here?" (Yes sir.)
"You actually play the guitar or is that just for the ladies??" (Yes, and no. Sir.)
"So you actually sleep in here?" (Yes sir.)
"That camera you got there; is that film?" (No, just looks old.)
"So you really do sleep in here?" (Yes sir.)
"So where do you go to sleep, then?" (In here. Sir.)

Off with a warning! I think they appreciated my stoic response to the ultimate question.

I miss California in broad swooping doses.
Robbie

Adios, Colin!

It was a pleasure to have your company at lunch when you were in Sacramento. And thanks for pointing out my bad habit of riding the clutch at stop lights, and for not dope-slapping me every time I did it after you pointed it out. I'm still working on it, honest.

I got the printer's proof back for my upcoming book on VW buses, and found about two dozen errors that had slipped past three beta readers and an editor... mostly punctuation and formatting errors that didn't show up well on computer screens. Making the corrections now, will send out for another proof, and we'll see what's what. I hope to have the book available by the end of October, but you know the expression: "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."

JLT wrote:Adios, Colin!

It was a pleasure to have your company at lunch when you were in Sacramento. And thanks for pointing out my bad habit of riding the clutch at stop lights, and for not dope-slapping me every time I did it after you pointed it out. I'm still working on it, honest.

I got the printer's proof back for my upcoming book on VW buses, and found about two dozen errors that had slipped past three beta readers and an editor... mostly punctuation and formatting errors that didn't show up well on computer screens. Making the corrections now, will send out for another proof, and we'll see what's what. I hope to have the book available by the end of October, but you know the expression: "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."

A book? Very cool! Look forward to hearing more about it!

poptop tom wrote: A book? Very cool! Look forward to hearing more about it!

Well, it starts with a brief history of VW buses, and then describes my experiences with three buses I've owned from 1971 to the mid-1990s.

The next section of the book describes how I bought my present bus, a 1971 camper, on Ebay in 2008 and got it roadworthy again, encountering some pitfalls along the way.

The final section is about some of the trips I've taken with it, including a rather long section on Buses By the Bridge.

I'll let people on the IAC know when it's out.